Jaxton couldn't help it. He really couldn't. He burst out laughing, something he hadn't done in months. That .... hippie... was just the funniest thing he had seen (or heard of in months. And months.) With a large grin on his face, he looked towards Van. "I'm sorry, Chief... Never heard of something so stupid as "greenies" being so worked up about the environment by printing off ... hundreds, wasn't it? ... of posters." He smirked, letting out another low chortle.

As his best friend headed for the exit once again, Jaxton followed close behind. He made a pointed line between where he had stood and where he was going; Oh sorry, did I just happen to stand on some of your important tree saving paper? Shaking his head, he moved forward until he was walking side by side with Damien. "See you soon, Chief." He called out, all but telling him they'd see him for a drink later.

Damon had noticed that Marina had stepped closer to him, but he didn't really mind. There was quite a group of people that had gathered in the department that was watching them, and Damon was getting the impression that all of them were bursting to attack. He listened carefully as Mr. Bole spoke to them, his eyebrows furrowing down slightly as he listened. A cult? He was calling the environment department a cult??

"We're not a cult," Damon said with a little shake of the head. "Honestly, the only thing we care about on those posters in trying to promote the environment, that is it. But we understand completely if you'd rather not have items with that symbol up in your department," Damon said with an understanding nod.

It was just moments later that Marina mentioned getting their posters back, the head auror passing by them, turning his foot so that one of them was completely ruined. Well that wasn't childish...at all. Cough. Cough. Since that man clearly was not going to pick them up for Marina, he would. After all clearly they were making it an us versus them kind of thing, so Damon was definitely on Marina's side. With a flick of his wand the papers were off the floor and floating next to Marina at the perfect height that she could grab them.

It was when Damon was about to turn to Marina to suggest that they should move on that Damon heard the laughing. With raised eyebrows Damon turned to look at the man that was laughing about the posters. "Actually all of our posters come from completely recycled products and are completely recyclable themselves, so they'll be of no harm to the environment." Damon knew that the man was mocking them...it was very apparent that this whole department thought their department was a joke, but that was fine with Damon. Most people thought caring about the environment was a joke...

"Thank you for your time Mr. Bole," Damon said with another little nod, before motioning to Marina that perhaps they should leave now.

Yeah it was a good thing those two were leaving. Buddies of his they may be, but Van made a mental note to put down a pay dock for both of them for 'conduct unbecoming'. He didn't like his people showing badly.

Van bent to pick the posters up himself and eyed the woman and then the man as he spoke. "Did I? Did I really? I don't think you understand at all. THIS." He indicated the symbol on the poster. "The inverted M, Is the symbol for the Cult of Walpurgis. For the fall of Wizarding democracy and the removal of the Statute in favour of the eventual domination of mugglekind. I don't know what they tell you about the cult on level four." You know, one of the departments that periodically got bonuses lining their pockets for doing what the cult wanted and all, "but any organisation which allows some of its members to beat, kidnap or murder muggleborns is an organisation that I do not welcome."

SO. Propaganda it was. He straightened up and carefully straightened the pile he'd picked up. Not all of them, but a start. Were they so blind?

He offered the pile, his expression stony but certainly nothing he said or did was impolite. Just not particularly welcoming.

Isobel really should've seen this coming. During Evander's little speech, she stepped forward, watching the two members of the other department carefully. If they didn't understand the cult, they were obviously a lot more stupid than they seemed...and the woman would not be holding up a good image for the blondes at all. Izzy was sure that the department were totally up for going green, but not when it was ordered by the cult. Isobel would never be doing a single thing for that stupid cult, and it's stupid idiotic followers.

"Van..." She murmered quietly, hand on his arm for a moment. She got it. She understood why he felt this way, but she didn't want him to make things tougher for himself. Sure things hadn't always been good for them. But she still considered him her friend, and she would always look out for him.

She glanced at the two visitors and smiled at them. Were her posters back, and nice to how she wanted them. "Perhaps you should change the design of your posters." You know. Take the big annoying symbol off of it.

Hawk entered the Reception room, after just leaving Knockturn Alley as quickly as he could. His thoughts were on the goblin and that witch, he was sure they knew each other. That, or the goblin had an intense hate of MLE's and was willing to help someone who had killed in his own store.

Hawk's thoughts were disturbed, however, when he heard a bunch of comotion and entered the room just in time to see a bunch of papers being returned to people in the new department. Hmmmm. He stood to the side and waited.

Marina considered bending down and helping the man with the posters since it was her nature to show respect to people but he was talking... about something serious that involved 'beat, kidnap or murder muggleborns'. Marina's knees felt weak at once. She barely had the balance to take the pile from the man when he handed it over.

Swallowing hard, she breathed out, "I-I-I am a muggleborn." Not that he asked or cared but her mind was screaming inside of her head. She stared down at the symbol on the posters and then up at Bole. She wanted to ask an 'are you sure' but his stony face features said it. "Th-they didn't.." tell her about that cult. Rafe was going to answer to this.

Ignoring Damon's usher to leave, she asked the Bole man again, "I'm sorry sir but do you..." the 'cult' word was apparently a sensitive one to him so she just replaced it, "...mean there is another party.. to follow." Her own life might be at risk here.

Having heard yelling and chaos coming from reception, even all the way from the back corner of his work area where his desk was situated, Dorian had stood up and headed over. Especially as he'd heard Damien's voice among the cacophony. He hadn't gotten a chance to head over to wish him luck on his leave, but maybe he'd be able to catch him now. Even while investigating why the cult was attempting a, likely unsuccessful, takeover. There was really no need to disturb Muriel, and then half of the words he was hearing seemed to be cult-related. They were definitely not infiltrating Level Two, not on his watch.

Stepping out, however, he noticed things seemed to have settled down. Damien had left already, but Evander, Elinor, and Isobel were there, with two other Ministry workers. And posters, which he managed to snag one as they were beign gathered up. "Everything going okay?," he asked, generally directing his question to Evander and the two women, even as he glanced at the visitors. Obviously these posters didn't go over well, and as he glanced down, he knew why. Definitely cult propaganda, and... "Watchmen," he murmured, thinking about the graphic novel in his desk drawer. So the cult had read that. Or Juvenal, but he doubted that. Either way, things definitely didn't look good, not that they had before.

Damon looked at Marina as it looked like her knees were starting to buckle. Putting his hand on her arm, Damon tried to steady her. As Mr. Bole had explained to them what the symbol meant Damon felt absolutely disgusted. Honestly, how was he so ignorant to not know about this? He was a pureblood but he certainly didn't want muggles getting hurt, and he certainly did not want to associate himself with a party that wanted those things. Why was the head of their department giving them this without even mentioning it to them? Of course Damon couldn't fault his department head when it was his own responsibility to stay up to date with what was happening.

"Here," Damon said in response to the woman coming up and suggesting they change their design. With a furious flick of the wand the symbol on the bottom was removed completely on all of the posters. "Maybe I'll get in trouble for that, but whatever. If I had known that that was what was that stood for I wouldn't have agreed with it in the first place." You could hear the annoyance in Damon's voice as he spoke. Kind of to add along to Marina's question if they had a sign, Damon wondered if they had a symbol too. "What would you like us to put on the bottom instead so people know that our allegiance is not to a party that supports that?"

Elinor's head turned as another spectator spoke. "Oh. Everything's fine, Mister Tamerlane," she spoke up, somewhat quietly. Again, not really wanting to get involved or interrupt with the situation at hand. "These visitors from Environment Protection didn't know that the posters they asked to put up were in association with Walpurgis," she summed up nicely, and quietly.

She took a half step back, almost turning back for her lab, but decided to stick around juuuuuuuuust a few minutes more.

He glanced at Izzy and managed a smile for her. This cult stuff had been hard on her too, he knew it, what with bloody Recard and all.

A design change.... yeah. Van grunted in agreement.


He noted one of the newer employees, Hawk, arrive, but Van didn't say anything. Best to focus on the situation at hand.

"Best not admit that too loudly these days. You never know who might hear you." Van answered gently. He blinked silently.

"No. The true Ministry will rise once more. You'll see. If you want to make a stand..." He hesitated for a moment and then continued, "Perhaps you might wish to pop in and visit," The old biddy on level 5, "Gina Latorta, Department Head of International Cooperation. I believe she's arranging a strike." Which Evander didn't think would be effective.... but at least it'd provide a distraction of sorts. He couldn't share what MLEs plans were, not if Gevrik was floating around again. Thoughts weren't safe.


He nodded once at Dorian and then again at the Watchmen thing.... though Van had no clue about the graphic novel, he simply figured the man was talking about the cult symbol.


Interesting. Was that how they were doing it? Those who knew were threatened, and those who didn't were kept ignorant?

"The ministry symbol.... intact and unchanged would be appropriate I think." He said quietly.

And then, "I apologise if we all got off on the wrong foot. But you understand at least a fraction of why now, it seems."

Marina's mind raced. There was someone planning a striking? To overpower the ministry? Lord Borr and his ten tons belly? The most important question was where did Rafe, their head of department, stand in all of this? How many times had he assigned them to do something for that cult without voicing a thing? Did he have an idea that a muggle-born, such as Marina, working for a cult that didn't have a problem with blood-status-related harassment would be an utter humiliation?

When Damon removed the symbol from the poster, Marina shot him a quick look. How could he trust those paranoid people so easily? "Damon, no. Please, wait." She didn't want to rush into this. Not after the heavy truth getting unfold slowly. "We have to speak to Rafe first." Hopefully Damon would understand.

Looking back at Bole, Marina didn't even manage a smile, she just nodded once, "Sorry, sir, for wasting your time. And thank you for explaining this to us." Instead of playing with their posters like a child.

And now she was ready to go. Oh! First. Marina waved her wand and opened the magical pouch around her neck as they filed themselves into it - dirty and wrinkled.

Damon nodded and flicked his wand, the normal Ministry symbol now appearing on the bottom of the poster. "I'm sorry that we got off on the wrong foot as well, but I want you to know that I would never support such a cause as that one," Damon said with a small shake of the head. "Thank you for informing me."

Damon was about to say something else when Marina stopped him, asking him not to change the posters yet. "I like Rafe, and I respect him as a man, but if he knows about what this cult has planned and he's supporting it, then we're going to have a problem." Damon reached out and took one of each poster with the Ministry symbol on them from the stack, before he flicked his wand again and the rest of the posters were back to having the original W symbol on them. "If you want to talk to him before you decide that's fine...I'd be curious to figure out why he's been keeping this bit of information from us, but we can at least give this Department posters that don't have that blasted symbol on it, can't we?" Damon handed the two posters to Mr. Bole. "Maybe you'd consider putting these ones up since they have the Ministry symbol on them instead?"

Helena really couldn't believe it. She wasn't sure if she wanted to believe it. Not that they'd be able to do anything about it now, but she still needed to see Ryan. Her discovery had been hidden from everyone for a week now; she needed to tell Ryan, at the very least. Not only that, but the blonde woman also wanted to know what Ryan was intending to do in regards to the strikes against Borr. She wanted to know if he was going to be protesting, too.

As she made her way down the corridor and towards the reception, Helena sighed. There were a couple of people stood there, and no apparent receptionist anywhere. Seeing as though Helena had no idea who any of those people were, she'd just wait around near the receptionist's desk... until someone from in the department approached her. What, with her headaches and stomach cramps, she really wasn't in the mood to go searching for help, anyway.

With his fresh and tasty cup of tea, Ryan walked out the offices silently. Or more like...escaped the office. Simply because it had slowly started to get boring. The life in the offices was nothing like the field work he had been experiencing for years. Field work was always...maybe...more difficult but whatever Ryan liked was always the easiest in his book. Not to mention he was awfully skilled at dealing with anything...anyway.

Hehe...

Walking in the corridor some, he thought of paying a visit to Evander Bole yet that was until his light blue eyes caught the figure of someone he knew near the reception desk. A woman; Helena.

''Helena...'' so he called for her attention and approached. ''...business here? May i help you?''

Helena looked away from the poster on the wall when she heard someone say her name. Seeing Ryan stood there, Helena raised her eyebrow ever so slightly. Did he know that she was waiting for him?

Ah. Judging from the question, the woman doubted that he did. She smiled slightly. "Business?" She repeated. "Oh! ... Well, no. Not exactly..." The blonde looked up at the man through her eyelashes. "I actually came down here in the hope that I'd find you..."

Now Helena just hoped that Ryan wasn't on his way to somewhere important...

''Well...you know. Our relationship with your level has been a little bit intense so i thought you might have things to deal with.'' Taking a sip from his tea, the man halted himself, more like his thoughts, while enjoying the flavour and it was only when he realised what he was doing. What? What was that? Had he start to make assumptions without even properly looking at her? This was so very unlike him. Sitting into an office which was full of people did him no good apparently. There had been too many minds giving out too many data and he even got bored of reading people.

Clearing his throat, he approached the receprion desk a bit and placed his cup on it carefully. ''I am sorry. It seems have been into this business too much that i don't know even when to stop.'' Ths was the burden of working for law enforcement. You needed to be determined and very focused otherwise it'd end up with more crime stuff going on around.

Anyway...

Smiling a bit, Ryan looked at her properly this time but did not try to pick up why she had been looking for him since it seemed she was going to tell it herself. Of course, Ryan preferred to hear if from her. He liked her voice and it made his smile grow. ''And? Again...how can i help you? There is not any problem, is there? Neither problem nor case? Is something stressing you? That i can deal with easily. I have been looking for a break after all.''

Helena chuckled bitterly at his comment. It was true... MLE didn't seem to like the Minister's Office much, these days. In all honesty, Helena sided with their views more than those Borr forced upon her. She would consider applying for a job elsewhere in the Ministry... but that seemed pointless now. She wasn't going to be around for much longer, if she chose to quit her job when she plans to. "No... It's nothing to do with work. I try to avoid the office as much as I can, in all honesty... I've been working from home a lot, just to avoid them." Them being Borr, of course.

As he came closer and apologised, the blonde smiled. She shrugged, "It's okay..." Even though it bugged her sometimes, Helena honestly didn't mind that much. It's who he was, afterall.

Problems? Yes. Stress? Oh, there will be soon. A break? Helena tried to not laugh. Paternity Leave would hardly be a break. The woman fidgeted with her hands, and looked up at the man through her dark blue eyes. "I... Well... Yes. There is a problem. But... I'm not sure if it's something you'll be able to deal with easily, Ryan." The couple had never discussed this in the few years they'd been together. Helena never felt the need to... She didn't think they'd ever end up in this position. In fact, it was more of a case that she HOPED they never would. The first two times were difficult enough. She really didn't think there'd ever be a third. Merlin knows... Helena's too old now, anyway...

Not breaking the eye contact, the blonde studied Ryan's face, to see if there was an inkling of ... anything that suggested he knew what she was going to say next, before she actually came out with it.

He was a proud, happy daddy, Damien was. Hehe. Gripping the handle of the stroller he smiled brightly over at his wife and gave her a wink. "This is it love... this is where I spend most of my time. And this is Muriel. She's the greatest, she is," Damien said as he stopped in front of Muriel's desk and gave her a wink. Hehe.

He was starting to feel old. Coffee in hand and paper in the other, Sabel really didn't want to walk past a mirror. With ruffled hair and a jacket only half done up, for he couldn't decide if it was cold or warm out today, he was sure the only thing that didn't make him look old was his eyes. While granted, he couldn't see them himself, he was sure they were lit with such energy and happiness that he looked almost a child.

Perception. Such a strange thing.

But he was happy; happier than he had been in a long time, and it showed. Maybe there was some sort of happy-attract-o-spidey-senses that occurred when two people were so content and joyously at peace. Otherwise, he didn't know why he looked in the direction he did, or that he noticed the baby carriage being pushed by a usually-rock-stern-Auror. But he did. And he swore he turned two again in that instance.

With a grin to outmatch all his other grins, Sabel made his way over to the happy couple and almost threw his arms around Damien. Almost. There was a sliver of composure that had him refraining however, and simply drawing up to the side of the couple. "Well, I don't think I've ever seen anything so adorable in my life."

Gemini was following beside Damien and that silly carriage thing that he liked to push around so much. She'd much rather hold the baby herself, buuuut...

"Now Sabel, we all know I'm adorable, but we don't want to make the baby jealous." She said, grinning as she watched the boy practically twitch with restraint.

Hug him.

Dooooooooooo it.

Unaware that Gem thought anything negative about his pushing a stroller... which he did because he was OLD and limped some times and it was GREAT to be able to hold on to something like that when he walked Damien grinned at Gem for a moment and then leaned over to kiss her temple. She was cute. SO cute. His concentration was broken as Sabel happened across them. HE was precious, too.

The old Auror has to admit there were few times when he thought hugs were okay. This occasion, his happiest times, hugs were indeed acceptable. With that being decided he pulled his little YATI- manchild- trainee into a HUGE hug and patted his back heartily. "We all know you were talking about me, kid. And I know... it's almost criminal to be this cute," he said smugly. Heh.

Sabel was about to respond to Gemini, that lopsided-goofy-all-too-happy-and-uncontainable-grin still present on his face, when Damien decided to hug him. It was surprising, and a small squeak left him as he stumbled on one foot, trying to maintain his balance and not spill his coffee at the same time.

Really, he was surprised he didn't get a hair ruffle either.

Poking his head up, Sabel frowned playfully at the two of them. "You guys stole my punch lines." Pity. He thought they were good ones too.

Ah well, onto better things. Like the baby. With a grin, Sabel glanced between the two parents. It was hard not to simply break free and get a good look at the spawn himself. "May I?" He made a slight indication to the carriage with one finger. Coffee and paper would have to go, but it was a fair trade.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nixy!

Helena chuckled bitterly at his comment. It was true... MLE didn't seem to like the Minister's Office much, these days. In all honesty, Helena sided with their views more than those Borr forced upon her. She would consider applying for a job elsewhere in the Ministry... but that seemed pointless now. She wasn't going to be around for much longer, if she chose to quit her job when she plans to. "No... It's nothing to do with work. I try to avoid the office as much as I can, in all honesty... I've been working from home a lot, just to avoid them." Them being Borr, of course.

As he came closer and apologised, the blonde smiled. She shrugged, "It's okay..." Even though it bugged her sometimes, Helena honestly didn't mind that much. It's who he was, afterall.

Problems? Yes. Stress? Oh, there will be soon. A break? Helena tried to not laugh. Paternity Leave would hardly be a break. The woman fidgeted with her hands, and looked up at the man through her dark blue eyes. "I... Well... Yes. There is a problem. But... I'm not sure if it's something you'll be able to deal with easily, Ryan." The couple had never discussed this in the few years they'd been together. Helena never felt the need to... She didn't think they'd ever end up in this position. In fact, it was more of a case that she HOPED they never would. The first two times were difficult enough. She really didn't think there'd ever be a third. Merlin knows... Helena's too old now, anyway...

Not breaking the eye contact, the blonde studied Ryan's face, to see if there was an inkling of ... anything that suggested he knew what she was going to say next, before she actually came out with it.

As he eyed the woman's face, Ryan's light blue eyes stopped on the woman's little smile for a moment. This...could tell him lots of things about what kind of a thing she had in his mind right now, of course. So, he knew it was something that was possibly a huge burden yet it seemed that she was also unable to decide if that was a good or a bad thing. And to be honest...this scared Ryan. Those uncertain things were the most scary ones because he could not read them or...he preferred not to read them, at all. So, yes he was going to play the old game over and over again; playing the innocent man who was unable to get little details and clues.

''Nothing to do with work. Sorry, then. I cannot help you'' Then he took the cup of tea back and attempted to walk away. Attempted because something stopped him: Something deep in his mind. And it told him, from that deep corner, that he was being a jerk as usual but Helena did not deserve to face it.

So, with a kind of a expression that you could find on an uncomfortable child's face, Ryan turned back to the woman and sighed...deeply. He surely did not like the sound of it.

'I'm not sure if it's something you'll be able to deal with easily, Ryan.'

This really did not sound good. He very well knew that people always made the ultimate mistake of underestimating his skills...which worked well with him, they could not fight something they underestimated properly. However, Helena Beaumont was not among those people. She knew what he was capable of, so...yes...that was scary too. Especially when combined with the previous ideas.

''I am listening.''

Hawk Ebony returned from the protest and enteres the Reception Area. He remembered he had already came here to report the same crime before, but then something came up.

Leaning against the wall, he wondered again about this Cult. It seemed as if almost everyone in his department knew all about them, and he did know some too. But there must have been a meeting or something before the newbies had joined, cause it still seemed like most knew more than him. He knew its history and that the Cult had very clearly helped to put BYRR in charge, seeing as his orders had been to make a Department that used papers with the Cult W on it. And of course he heard when his boss told two people from that department that the Cult killed Muggle-borns. That part made him especially dislike them, given his past. But that was basically all he knew about it.

Then his thoughts went back to the murder he was to report. It seemed that either everyone in Knockturn Alley had something to do with the crime or they simply hated MLE's so much that they would rather not give any helpful information.

Unconsciously, the woman let her hands fall to her stomach. As Ryan spoke those words and turned away, Helena sighed audibly and rolled her eyes. She held back the urge to mention how she never actually asked for his help. He was just messing around though, right? He wasn't going to actually walk away from her right now, was he?

An unamused eyebrow was raised in his direction when he DID turn back to Helena.

She just looked at him for a moment with a somewhat fearful look in her eyes. Concentrating on words suddenly seemed much more difficult, and her palms were sweaty. Fidgeting with her fingers, Helena diverted her gaze away from Ryan for a moment. Well... she had all of his attention, yet looking him in the eye seemed terrifying. There was a scuff on the toe of her left shoe. Helena hadn't noticed that until now.

"I'm... I... erm... well... I'm pregnant."

The blonde woman let out a breath that she didn't realise she'd been holding in, and eyed Ryan's face, looking for the reaction before it happened. She waited a moment before piping up with: "3 months..."